Africa Demands Climate Accountability

Representatives of African civil society groups pertaining to enviroment demanded climate accountability from the rich and developed countries of the world at a press conference. This press conference was held right after the closing of the opening session of the 19 UN sponsored Warsaw Climate Conference, the leaders of civil groups belonging to Africa in very clear terms demanded of the rich and the developed countries of the world to cut back on their emmissions of dirty fossil fuels, in order to avert a catastrophic natural disaster of an unimaginable scale which is becoming inevitable reality.

The African delegates emphasized that if some concrete steps are not taken by the rich industralized nations in time, sooner or later, all of us would have to face a natural calamity with disastarous and dire consequences.

The African leaders of civil groups also vehemently demanded of the developed nations to fulfill their commitments which they had made under the terms of the climate convention. A document signed to by these countries under the auspicies of the United Nations. According to Said Agnes, Malawi’s representative at the conference:

“The best agreement on Earth won’t make a difference without implementation in the real world. That’s why a clear outcome in Warsaw must be drastically scaled up climate finance and technology transfer. Only if those commitments are met can African governments really believe that the rich world plans to act in good faith on any future agreement.”

All the African delegates stressed that the rich countries must take responsibility to what is transpiring, especially after the Typhoon Haiyan wrecked havoc in Phillipines, wiping out entire towns and villages from the face of the earth. This typhoon not only caused a monetary loss running into billions of dollars but also resulted in much more costly and irrepairable loss to human life.

The comminique issued at the press conference also stressed the need for the developed countries to take on the historic responsibility that rests on their shoulders and not to shrug off their committments, otherwise, they were of the unanimous view that nature and with it the humanity will never forgive them and they would be and rightly so, painted the villians that robbed nature to an irrepairable state.

“African people need an international mechanism to address loss and damage from climate change. That’s the reality. We see it every day. Perhaps the rich only see it on television – well they need to turn it on, watch it, learn, and then take responsibility for the suffering their emissions have caused.”

It is to be specially noted that it is not the first time that leaders of enviroment groups from the African continent, which perhaps is the most vulnerable to these drastic climate changes, have pleaded their just cause in front of the world community but because of the political clout and economic power of the developed countries, their efforts have been in vain.

Now these members of the African civil groups striving for a green, healthy and human friendly enviroment believe is the last chance being afforded to them by nature, if things don’t change drastically than nature in its turn will show no mercy. It is for this very reason that Africa demands climate accountability.